Stage 11 of the Tour de France served as the first individual time trial in the 100th edition of the prestigious cycling showcase, and ran from Avranches to Mont Saint-Michel. The 33-kilometer race proved to be an exciting sprint to the historic island.

Tony Martin of Omega Pharma-Quick Step emerged victorious on Wednesday with a time of 36 minutes and 29 seconds.

The race's official Twitter captured a pleased Martin with a thumbs up after his inspiring ride, in which he displayed remarkable toughness:

Yellow jersey bearer Chris Froome was the last rider to challenge Martin on the route, and it looked as though he had a great chance to beat him for his second stage win of 2013.

However, Froome could not keep it going after being stifled by the cross breeze from the island, and wound up 12 seconds behind Martin's winning pace.

Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

Although he didn't win the stage, Froome kept a firm grip on the yellow jersey as the overall individual time classification leader. The Brit, who rides for Sky Pro Cycling, gained two minutes on Alejandro Valverde thanks to his wonderful effort.

Team Sky was excited when Froome was one second ahead of Martin's pace at the 9.5-kilometer mark, but it proved to be not quite enough:

Chris Froome has just gone through the 1st time check after 9.5km 1sec up on Tony Martin!! #tdf#VaVaFroome

A terrible crash in the opening stage caused Martin to suffer a concussion, a contusion on his left lung, a deep cut on his left elbow and bruises all over him. Before heading to the hospital and receiving those diagnoses, he allegedly passed out twice—all of this according to Sky Sports.

The above highlight shows Froome's run to the finish and Martin celebrating the stage win.

It's hard to fathom how Martin mustered the fortitude to put forth this type of winning effort. Nevertheless, the resilient German and time trial world champion, per the NBC Sports Network telecast, was somehow able to get it done.

Tony Martin shows off the bike he used ahead of his winning time trial run.

On the topic of crashes, Mark Cavendish was thought to have caused one in the previous stage, and it might have had something to do with the horrific incident that happened on Wednesday.

A fan pelted Cavendish with a bottle of urine, and according to the report by BBC Sport's Matt Slater, it could have been in connection to the wreck in the final 200 meters of the previous day's stage.

Cavendish is typically a sprinting specialist, but he finished just 163rd in the time trial in Stage 11. He sits third in the points classification with 166 behind leaders Peter Sagan (269) and Andre Greipel (186).

Stage 12 will take place from Fougères to Tours on Thursday, and below is an overview of the impending action, courtesy of Global Cycling Network:

Here is an overview of the top 10 in the time classification:

General Classifications After Stage 11

RANK

RIDER

TEAM

TIMES

GAP

1.

Chris Froome

Sky Pro Cycling

42h 29' 24"

2.

Alejando Valverde

Movistar Team

42h 32' 49"

+ 03' 25"

3.

Bauke Mollema

Belkin Pro Cycling

42h 33' 01"

+ 03' 37"

4.

Alberto Contador

Team Saxo-Tinkoff

42h 33' 18"

+ 03' 54"

5.

Roman Kreuziger

Team Saxo-Tinkoff

42h 33' 21"

+ 03' 57"

6.

Laurens ten Dam

Belkin Pro Cycling

42h 33' 34"

+ 04' 10"

7.

Michal Kwiatkowski

Omega Pharma-Quck Step

42h 34' 08"

+ 04' 44"

8.

Nairo Quintana

Movistar Team

42h 34' 42"

+ 05' 18"

9.

Rui Costa

Movistar Team

42h 35' 01"

+ 05' 37"

10.

Jean-Christophe Peraud

AG2R La Mondiale

42h 35' 03"

+ 05' 39"

*Full classifications and results can be found at LeTour.com, which also provided all statistics and information involving the route and Stage 11.